Wrong-way driver warning system showing promise, ADOT says

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation said a new system designed to reduce the risk of serious crashes involving wrong-way drivers has kept more than a dozen vehicles from entering the freeway in the wrong direction.

The $4 million wrong-way vehicle detection and warning system has been operating since January along a 15-mile stretch of Interstate 17 through Phoenix between the I-10 and Loop 101 interchanges.

Calling the results “promising,” the department said in a news release it anticipates expanding the system to other areas, including the new Loop 202 South Mountain Freeway, which is scheduled to open late in 2019.

Using 90 thermal cameras, the system detects when a vehicle is driving against traffic on an off-ramp or frontage road.